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Submission Guidelines

We are currently taking submissions for 2018. However, our reading period for 2017 is closed while we work on our annual anthology and website. We accept poetry, art (any digital medium), and photography. ​

In order to submit your work, email up to 5 unpublished poems or images to info@colloquialpoetry.org. In the subject line of the email, please include the genre of your submission and your last name. We accept simultaneous submissions, but please let us know if a poem is accepted elsewhere.

We do not accept poetry attachments.If you have poems that require they be sent as an attachment, please, send us an email first. Poetry submissions that are attached will go unopened.

When preparing your submission, please make sure to send a cover letter and include a short 50-word bio.

Bio Guidelines: We want your bio to be authentic; we want to know you as a person, not as a professional. In other words, we want your bio to represent the casual you—the person you are when you are out with your friends or at the coffee shop. And, well, if this is the professional you, by all means be you, and send us the standard professional bio.

Art/ Photography Guidelines: Because issues arise when images are sent in the body of an email, we ask that all images be sent as separate attachments. In other words, if you are submitting 5 images, each image must be attached as its own file. The filename should always be the title of the image.

Poetry Guidelines: We look for poems that are conversational, brief (no more than 25 lines), compressed, narrative, and that utilize everyday language. The poems that we accept generally take unique turns, and are clear and grounded in concrete images and sensory details. Before submitting your work, make sure that your poems take us to unexpected places. Take a look at our poetry to get an idea of what we are looking for.

Unfortunately, we are unable to pay contributors at this time. However, your work will remain in our annual anthologies, and we will strive to promote you as an artist whenever we can. With this said, we invite all of our contributors to inform us of their good news. There is a chance we will share your news on our "Info & News" section and social media pages.

We hold the first serial rights to the works published here, and the copyright automatically reverts back to the artist after publication. We do ask that Colloquial be acknowledged in any subsequent publications thereafter.

By submitting your work to info@colloquialpoetry.org, you are giving us the rights to publish and reference you and your work on our website, social media pages, and in our annual anthologies.

If you have any questions about our submission guidelines, feel free to send us an email —we are always here to help.